Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Canadiens Have A Strangle Hold on Eastern All-Star Voting

The NHL announced today that Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price, defensemen Andrei Markov and Mike Komisarek and forwards Alex Kovalev, Saku Koivu and Alex Tanguay are the leading vote-getters for the six Eastern Conference starting lineup spots.

This is after the NHL uncovered a scheme by Canadiens fans to stuff the ballot box for their players through a robo-call (see here). The NHL has stated that they have stripped thousands of votes from the Canadiens players since discovering this.

Sure Canadiens fans are some of the most passionate in the league and are probably coming out in record numbers to support their players (especially with the game being in Montreal during their Centennial Season), but I find it hard to believe that the votes are legitimate when Tanguay has more votes than Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin.

By Canadien fans voting in players that not only shouldn't be in starting line-up, but on the team at all, a few deserving All-Stars will be left at home watching.